Българската рецепция на "Задушница" от Адам Мицкевич
The Bulgarian Reception of Adam Mickiewicz's "Dziady" ("Forefathers' Eve")

Between the Translation and the Stage

Author(s): Margreta Grigorova
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature, Translation Studies, Theory of Literature
Published by: Пловдивски университет »Паисий Хилендарски«
Keywords: Adam Mickiewicz; Forefathers’ Eve; Bulgarian theatrical adaptation; translation; Leon Schiller; Slava Shtipliewa; Blaga Dimitrova; Nikolaj Georgiev
Summary/Abstract: The present paper dwells on two instances of the Bulgarian theatrical adaptation of Dziady in 1937/1938 and two later contemporary performances in 2009 and 2014. These stage adaptations demonstrate the ongoing Bulgarian interest in both the translatability of the text and its stage life as a work that has a persisting vitality in the context of Bulgarian reception. More immediately, the study focuses on the connectedness of the first and only comprehensive translation of Dziady (by Slava Shtiplieva, whose translated version becomes subject to further modifications and assessments by the philologist Lyubomir Andreychin and the poet Nikolay Liliev when intended for stage dramatization) and the visiting theatrical performance set on the stage of the Bulgarian National Theatre by Leon Schiller и Andrzej Pronaszko, with Bulgarian actors, in 1937. The performance represents a significant achievement in the Bulgarian reception trigger ing far-reaching media responses and gathering a large number of prominent Bulgar ian authors and intellectuals. The event sparked heated debates. Slava Shtiplieva’s translation itself, published in 1938 as a separate book, has been subject to numerous critical assessments. The second point of concern here is the writer and translator Blaga Dimitrova’s translation of Conrad’s famous monologue known as “Wielka improwizacja” (“The Great Improvisation”), which is considered more accomplished in terms of poetic achievement and which provides the basis of two subsequent theatrical interpreta tions directed by Nikolay Georgiev, the founder of Alma Mater Sofia University Theatre and the disciple of Kazimierz Dejmek and Jerzy Grotowski. In 1968 (when Dejmek’s adaptation of Dziady was officially banned in Poland) Georgiev was like wise compelled to suspend his lecturing activities and had to leave for the country side. In 2009 and 2014 he set two theatrical performances based on Dziady. The included interview with the stage director offers further insight into the Bulgarian reception of the play and its forms of continuous reassessment.

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